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The Kingmaker but only one potential King

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:59 am, September 30th, 2008 - 51 comments

Let’s get serious about the idea of the Maori Party working with National. Yes, they want to play up the possibility to enhance their bargaining position, just as the Greens were last month, but it’s not going to happen. National and the Maori Party voted together in only a third of votes in the last […]

Greens good for workers

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 8:20 am, September 18th, 2008 - 75 comments

Work rights should be a big issue this election. National is proposing to strip workers of their rights to undermine wage increases. The Greens’ work rights policy, on the other hand, rocks. – Lift the minimum wage from $12 an hour to $15 an hour immediately. That will restore the minimum wage relative to the […]

The Greens’ billboards, too good?

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 4:50 pm, September 7th, 2008 - 86 comments

I’m impressed with the Green’s new billboard campaign and I’m pretty certain it’ll work as it is clean and effective marketing and reminds me of the best work that was coming out of Saatchi when they were at the peak of their powers. One thing about the billboards disquiets me however, and that is that […]

Russel Norman at Drinking Liberally Wgtn – tomorrow

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:40 am, September 2nd, 2008 - 6 comments

The Drinking Liberally – Wellington email: By popular demand this Wednesday Drinking Liberally Wellington presents: Russel Norman – Co-leader of the Green Party. Russel is a relatively recent addition to parliament and many of you expressed an interest in hearing more about him and his views. This is your chance! Come share a drink with […]

Herald poll shows Nats’ lead collapsing

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:50 am, August 28th, 2008 - 36 comments

Today’s Herald-Digi poll is the first to be released that was taken after the secret agenda tape scandal had fully emerged and had some time to sit in voters’ minds. Which makes it worrying reading for National. They have lost 5.4% support (54.4% to 50%) and Labour has benefited from that loss picking up 5.5% (30.8% […]

Greens win better ETS

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:23 am, August 27th, 2008 - 21 comments

The Greens have won some very good improvements to the ETS in exchange for their support. The most important is $1 billion over 15 years to insulate low-income homes and subsidise upgrades to insulation of higher income homes. That’s a really positive development; all New Zealand homes will finally have decent insulation (Labour has done well […]

Greens back emissions trading scheme

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 5:08 pm, August 26th, 2008 - 48 comments

The Greens have decided to back the government’s emissions trading scheme saying in a press release that it’s a start but there’s more to do: We reported on Thursday that we had achieved virtually nothing in two areas – agriculture, and protection of important biodiversity from pine plantings. We have now made some progress on […]

Adapting to the end of cheap oil

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:01 pm, August 24th, 2008 - 30 comments

On August 1, Transit NZ and Land Transport NZ were merged into the NZ Transport Authority. The new organisation’s first major publication shows a welcome shift in thinking and an acknowledgment that the age of cheap oil is over. Managing Transport Challenges When Oil Prices Rise contains a model built on the consensus of a number of international […]

Greens call for public input on ETS

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:10 am, August 22nd, 2008 - 22 comments

One thing you can always say for the Greens, they’re democratic to their core. Currently, they find themselves facing a tough choice – whether or not to support Labour’s Emissions Trading Scheme – and, true to their democratic principles, they’re asking for advice from the public on their decision. Jeanette Fitzsimmons outlines the following pros […]

Hilarious

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:20 am, August 4th, 2008 - 56 comments

Greens on National’s plan to borrow to build more roads: “Lonely dinosaur seeks white elephant“

The same dream

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:17 am, July 16th, 2008 - 5 comments

Some people don’t seem to understand that being of the Left does not mean being soley allied to Labour or the Greens or the Progressives. It means fundamentally holding beliefs that are fundamentally also held by Labour, the Greens, and the Progressives, a common thread of principles that binds the Left. 08wire.org explains with the […]

On Freedom

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 6:51 am, July 5th, 2008 - 122 comments

It is time for the Left to take back the language of freedom. At its heart freedom, power for the ordinary person, is what the Left is about. – Freedom from unemployment, – Freedom from crappy wages that mean you have to work 60 hours a week to make ends meet, – Freedom from having to […]

Greens discover Nats full of hot air

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:12 pm, July 2nd, 2008 - 46 comments

A classic ‘cake and eat it’ from Crosby/Textor National has been their approach to climate change – stating they support tackling this issue but opposing every policy that has been developed. The latest example is their position on the ETS, which No Right Turn explains beautifully: Reading the National Party’s minority report [PDF] on the […]

Nandor’s valedictory

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 10:27 am, June 27th, 2008 - 19 comments

Great final speech by the Green MP. Good interview in the Dom here. Full speech at the Green Party website.

You call that policy? This is policy

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:45 pm, June 23rd, 2008 - 90 comments

National has released a brochure, laying out all its policies. They take up two A4 pages of double-spaced bullet points. That’s incredibly lightweight. Contrast that with the policy files of another party outside government, the Greens. National has 14 vague policies. The Greens have 51 policy area pages, each containing dozens of actionable policies. There […]

Old man’s law

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 62 comments

Frogblog has footage of Nandor Tanczos blasting the Government’s anti-tagging legislation and noting that “Judith Collins would be screaming about the nanny state if we tried to tell her that she had to keep her Chardonnay under lock and key.” Sounds like Hone Harawira was in fine form too: “Tagging is ugly and offensive and […]

Act now to protect workers’ wages

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:40 am, June 19th, 2008 - 55 comments

Times are going to get harder for workers in the next few years. Unemployment is set to rise to 4.5-6% (still well under 1990s levels). The wages of those who keep their jobs won’t rise as fast. At the same time, prices are rising faster, particularly petrol. What […]

The vision thing

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:45 pm, June 10th, 2008 - 95 comments

No sensible analysis could conclude that the Labour-led governments of the last 8 years have been anything but excellent for New Zealand. As you know, we’ve seen unemployment plummet to record lows, wages rise at record rates, more spending on public services, interest-free student loans, 20Free childcare, the buyback of the rail network, the end […]

Ward sees sense

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:43 am, June 4th, 2008 - 35 comments

Good on Mike Ward for finally seeing sense and stepping aside, allowing Greens co-leader Russel Norman to enter Parliament replacing Nandor Tanczos. Norman is rapidly establsihing himself as a very good media frontperson for the Greens; being in Parliament will enhance his role. Only the righties were praising Ward for not stepping aside (just as […]

Greens challenge Fonterra

Written By: Tane - Date published: 10:01 am, June 3rd, 2008 - 10 comments

Good to see the Greens coming out with a relevant, populist message at the weekend’s conference by tackling the issue of food affordability. The Greens have great policies but far too often they’ve got themselves bogged down in the detail and been seen by voters as irrelevant on hip-pocket issues. But while the challenge to […]

Greens must not let ETS fail

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:20 pm, May 28th, 2008 - 45 comments

The Dompost reports that the Greens will not vote for the Emissions Trading Scheme if the introduction of transport fuels into the scheme and the end of free allocation of credits are delayed. Without the Greens, the Bill will probably not pass. I have a lot of sympathy for the Greens’ position. The ETS is […]

Nandor to stay in Parliament until election

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:50 pm, May 21st, 2008 - 20 comments

Nandor Tanczos has just announced he will not be standing down from Parliament early to let Russel Norman in because former MP Mike Ward has refused to step aside. According to Nandor’s statement: “I had hoped that I might step down soon and allow Co-Leader Russel Norman to take my place before the election, however, […]

Norman coming into his prime

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 7:40 am, May 9th, 2008 - 73 comments

The Greens have started to use Russell Norman as their primary spokesperson, instead of Jeanette Fitzsimons. Fitzsimons has never been great with the media, particularly in confrontational interviews and on TV. So far, Norman, while he still has much to work on, is a vast improvement. Take a look at how he handled an aggressive […]

Jeanette Fitzsimons answers your questions

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:27 am, April 14th, 2008 - 14 comments

We’re really pleased to have Jeanette Fitzsimons respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? Well, there are so many! But probably the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2000 and the work I have done leading […]

Interview the leaders III: Labour

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 5:14 pm, April 7th, 2008 - 64 comments

A big thanks to Progressives’ leader Jim Anderton for being the first participant in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series. The quality of his answers has set a standard for the others to emulate. Our next leader is Jeanette Fitzsimmons of the Green Party. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are […]

Interview the leaders II: The Greens

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 1:26 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 51 comments

Well, we’ve made our decision on the two questions you wanted asked of Jim Anderton and one of the decisions we made was that we needed three questions. So we’ve picked the following: For the question that will be asked of all leaders we’ve chosen Wat Tyler’s question as tidied up by Billy: Of which […]

If I were the Greens’ campaign strategist

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:21 am, March 27th, 2008 - 28 comments

This should be the Greens’ time in the sun. For decades, the Green movement has been concerned about the future impacts of climate change, peak oil, and resource depletion. The future is now. These once far-off concerns are having impacts today and people are finally becoming aware of the importance of sustainability and demanding government […]

Birds of a feather…

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 3:45 pm, March 14th, 2008 - 28 comments

Frogblog covers Muriel Newman’s column in the Dom yesterday: “Climate change, we didn’t do it” [whew! back to my environmentally pollutive and destructive ways then]. Muriel’s source for this assertion is the recent (and delightfully innocuously named) International Conference on Climate Change. The purpose of the conference is to promote doubt over the increasing scientific […]

A plea to the Greens

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 2:59 pm, March 3rd, 2008 - 43 comments

The Greens vex me. Here is a party of grand vision and good science; a party that understands how our current mode of living and production in a finite world is undermining our future welfare; a party that realises if we keep trashing the place the way we are the party will soon be over; […]

Greens/Maori Party cooperation good for the Left

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 4:05 pm, February 7th, 2008 - 31 comments

The Maori Party and the Greens are discussing an informal alliance ahead of the election. This makes a lot of sense. The two parties vote together on most issues (more than they vote with any other parties) and have fundamental principles in common. Either major party will probably need the support of one or both […]

Nandor’s not standing

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 2:35 pm, January 17th, 2008 - 14 comments

Green MP Nandor Tanczos announced today that he will not be putting his name forward as a candidate for this year’s election. Here’s the press release.